Weight loss support with a spiritual element. I will keep you posted on my journey in the hopes that you will join me in becoming the person God wants you to be. Don't worry about being religious. Come as you are.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Use It or Lose It?

I mean in my title use our brains or lose them. What exactly is the government's job? I maintain it is to keep me free and to keep me safe. I don't need the government to tell me what light bulb to use nor do I need the government's guidance concerning what I eat. Inform me without spinning it for political reasons - I will then make my decisions concerning alternative energy, recycling, and what car to drive. The free market will sort it out if the government would stick to what government is for. If people don't buy incandescent bulbs because of the information available and their own convictions about the environment, they won't be manufactured. If people want to conserve fuel they will buy smaller cars and so many larger ones won't be manufactured. As people spend more and more money on organic foods more will be produced. When alternative energy becomes cost effective, people will buy it. If the post office, trash collection, and social security became privatized do you think a better, more cost effective job would be done? Competition is a good thing. It affects quality and price. Do the people who support socialism and big government think that they will be best buddies with the ruling class? They will be part of the unwashed masses like the rest of us. Wealth is being redistributed by taking it out of the economy through taxes and then putting it back in via social programs. The top 5% of the wage earners pay 50% of the tax burden and Obama says they should pay their fair share. The premise here is they are not paying their fair share - excuse me? Class warfare tells people that if only the rich had less then they would have more. Check and see if that bottom group graduated from high school, what kind of a job they have, how many illegitimate children they have and how young they were when those children started coming, do those children all have the same father? Can we turn this around? I don't think so. I guess I am pessimistic but this lifestyle seems to be handed down from generation to generation. The mother of a woman I used to teach with was really concerned about how many children these people had who could not afford them and did not know how to parent. People with good educations, careers, and advantages have one or two children - some none at all. This is a scary scenario that is unfolding.

If we don't think for ourselves what lies ahead? We have separated consequences from behavior. People make poor choices and then whine about the consequences or never overcome what has happened. I look at some of our youth and think how sad that this is how they think they have to distinguish themselves--by being outrageous ( check this out at www.jensgyrations.blogspot.com). Bring that up and there will be all the arguments about ego, self-expression, finding themselves, etc. How about achieving something? I just heard on the news that there is a student who is a very good football player. He is not allowed to carry the ball after he scores two touchdowns to make things "fair". I could not believe my ears. Any of your kids play in sports where they don't keep score so there won't be hurt feelings? Graduation rates are dismal in many places AND WE ARE LETTING IT HAPPEN. Why can't we be practical and look around and see what's happening to us? There is rebellion everywhere. I heard on the radio a comment that a democracy will last about 200 years before falling. America has beat that but, honestly, would you say we have much longer if we continue as we are? I think democracy fails because people gradually give up their rights and let government do what they should be doing themselves. Socialism is next. Communism is next. A dictatorship follows. Then people rebel because they have nothing left to lose and the cycle will begin again. This is my theory. I don't know of any nation that has gone through this whole cycle. I also don't know of any nation that has been successful under socialism or communism. Europe and Asia can be used for that example. Civilization was there before it was here. We should be watching their situations carefully and learning I think.

We can even extend this to our weight problems. Any of you ever done rebellious eating? - that "I'll show you" attitude? The rules about health and weight and eating were only meant for others. We were going to do as we please. Even now we have trouble using plain old "horse sense" as it used to be called and why? The discomfort associated with doing without is difficult to bear. People get into financial difficulties because they can't wait to pay for something with cash so they charge it. We can't wait a year or more to get at our goal weight; we want it now. The things we over-do are usually the things that aren't really necessary at all. Eating unhealthy foods, drinking alcohol, charging things to support a lifestyle. A man I used to work with remarked about some sale items I told him I had bought and he said, "If you don't need it, you didn't save any money" - I just didn't waste quite as much. He also said the only things you should ever go into debt for are a house and a car. He even paid cash for his cars. He was debt free. He practiced self-discipline.

What if we exercised his kind of control in all areas of our lives? We would not be in debt over our heads and we would not be needing to lose weight. He used his brain. He started using it at a young age from the examples and guidance of the adults in his life. "If only I had known then what I know now".